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Academics

The Bennington Approach

Since its founding, Bennington has been committed to the belief that a dynamic, relevant education is best achieved when students themselves define its direction. In this way, Bennington students take with them not only what they have learned, but how they have learned it.

At Bennington, students work closely with faculty to design the content, structure, and sequence of their study and practice. As a result, internal sources of order come to replace external templates, and their education prepares them to direct their lives toward self-fulfillment and constructive social purposes—goals which are central to Bennington's founding vision.

The Plan Process

Through the Plan, students develop a structure for their study and practice. The process involves close collaboration with and feedback from a faculty committee, who guide their progress and ensure that their plan is challenging, academically sound, and significant.

Field Work Term

Every Bennington student, every winter spends seven weeks at work in the world pursuing jobs, internships, and entrepreneurial endeavors related to their studies, their professional ambitions, and their own curiosities.

Faculty Advising

The faculty serve as models for a student’s own practice, since they are active—even renowned—in their fields. Students learn from them how to frame a question, how to pursue a line of inquiry, how to create a space for new ideas, and how to set the direction for their life’s work.

Top-Ranked Academics

At Bennington, students are encouraged to be active participants in every class.
Intellectual growth is interdisciplinary, exploratory, and engaged. Bennington strongly believes in the value of exploring new fields of study.
Bennington’s teacher-practitioner model means that students work in close collaboration with faculty members who are themselves actively engaged in their fields.